Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Spitzer hooked, swallows pride!

How do you go from the top to the bottom? Ask Gov. Spitzer, because he knows firsthand. Discuss!

Posted by Stu at 9:34 AM

Labels:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since the terms "high-priced prostitute" and "politican" are often interchangeable, Spitzer should use the "Identity Confusion" defense.

An interesting dilemma whether to 'legalize' prostitution.
The more intriguing concept is whether society has the right to limit adult activities . . . the line has often been drawn at the idea of "harm" and whether the person has the right to harm themselves, and we see that in some cases there is full acceptance of activities with an exchange of money that potentially cause harm between consenting adults: cosmetic surgery, tattoos, physical therapy, skydiving, skiing, you name it.
Whether the person is actually engaging in the activity with full consciousness is another matter: they may be drunk and decide a tattoo of their ex-girlfriend is a great idea, or they may be engaging sexually with others because they were molested as a child and are stuck in a trauma loop and continuing to replicate the event.
Spciety draws the line at "harm"---you cannot cause harm to yourself if that also causes harm to others.
But society recognises the right of people to cause harm to themselves and actually sanctions to some degree activity while also attempting to restrict the harm to others: so drugs users who may have to burgle or rob to afford drugs are given the drugs by society. Or since needle sharing spreads dangerous disease, new needles are offered freely, as are condoms and medical screenings to sex sellers.

I prefer delegalization of all activities between adults.
But I recognise that the risk is that more harm may result.
The upside is that more effort and focus can go toward reducing societal harm. Time and resources spent in investigation and prosecution can go toward prevention and assistance.

Where do we want to draw the line on harm??
I say that we need to consistently apply a helping hand to those who cannot help themselves or those who have fallen into trauma loops. You don't argue with a febrile child whether it would be a good idea to see a doctor----you take them.
We shouldn't have to allow people to kill themselves with alcohol or heroin when it is possible to mandate them into therapy.
We shouldn't have to tolerate people being domestically abusive and transferring those tendencies to children when we have the ability to mandate counseling intervention.

So, as you see, I am at once a libertarian, AND a social conservative about this.
Decriminalize the activities that are self-harming while at the same time reaching out to assist people from continuing to harm themselves.

March 11, 2008 at 11:28 AM
Just Fred said...

We could argue about whether or not prostitution should be made legal, but the point is that at this time it isn't.

What I find interesting is that committing adultry with another consenting adult is not illegal, but paying someone for the same thing is illegal. Yet which activity probably affects the lives of more people and families?

March 11, 2008 at 1:29 PM
Gary Sutton said...

The reality is that Spitzer will go down for a lot of reasons, but most importantly for being the ultimate hypocrite. His sanctimonious exercise of power as DA, and Governor of New York has left him with people waiting for him to trip up, and he rewarded his detractors with a buffet. He does not appear to have any supporters be they Republicans drafting impeachment papers or Democrats staying clear of him. To try to stay on as Governor would be his ultimate exercise of arrogance. It won't happen. He will be gone by later today, I believe. GS

March 12, 2008 at 8:04 AM
Just Fred said...

Gary,
I hope you are right for the sake of everybody, but as you observed we're dealing with a highly arrogant individual. Larry Craig and that guy, Vitter from Louisiana, are still hanging around aren't they?

After awhile I guess these guys believe the whole will fade away as the media focuses on the next sleaze-wad.

March 12, 2008 at 8:55 AM
JustMyOpinion said...

While I have no sympathy for Spitzer and his current situation and it is looking like he is getting his just desserts so to speak , I read that the FBI had been tracking him for a little while but was surprised what triggered the investigation. This guy is a multi-millionaire and a relatively small (to him anyway) bank transaction seems to have triggered the investigation.

Something smells fishy unless there is more than meets the eye here. Looks like a “Big Brother” watching the way this reads. I am sure more will come about the grand jury investigation over time since this was already a leak from it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23587329/

March 12, 2008 at 2:17 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)